The Romani languages in the Nordic countries

Classifying Romani languages for language technology purposes is complicated. There are more Romani languages than there are ISO codes and some ISO codes thus cover several varieties. One and the same language may have several diverging normative bodies.

The table below gives language names, ISO and Glottolog codes (with link to Glottolog) for Romani languages in the Nordic countries, as well as indicated whether the language is standardised by the authorities in Finland, Sweden or Norway. Eventual status in other countries is not included in the table. GiellaLT status indicates whether it has been worked with here. Alpha indicates working language models with some content. Experiment indicates a working setup with no linguistic content.

Glottolog name	Alternate names	Name in official documents	GiellaLT status	ISO code*)	GiellaLT code**)	Glottolog code	Standard in country
Kalo Finnish Romani	Kaale	Suomen romani	Alpha	rmf	rmf	kalo1256	Finland
Tavringer Romani		Resanderomska	Experiment	rmu	rmu	tavr1235	Sweden
Romani arli	arlikane	Arli	Experiment	rmn	rmn***)	arli1238	Sweden
Romani kalderaš	kelderašicko	Kalderash	Experiment	rmy	rmy-x-kalderas	kald1238	Sweden
Romani lovara	lovari, lovaricko	Romanés	no	rmy	rmy-NO	lova1240	Norway
Romani lovara	lovari, lovaricko	Lovari	no	rmy	rmy-x-lovara	lova1240	Sweden
Polish Romani		Polsk romska	no	rml	rml	poli1261	Sweden
Traveller Norwegian	romani rakkripa	Romani	Alpha	rmg	rmg	trav1236	Norway

*) Note that three of the ISO codes have a wider coverage than in the table above: rmn – Balkan Romani, rml – Baltic Romani, rmy – Vlax Romani are all used also in a wider European context, and for more varieties than the ones referred to here.

**) BCP47 codes used to name repositories in the GiellaLT infrastructure.

***) rmn should in the GiellaLT context really be named rmn-SE, as we presently only work with data and representatives from Sweden.

Starting 2017, the Swedish Language Council has initiated a project aiming at revising the orthographies of Romani languages in Swedan, cf. this orientation. At present (spring 2022), all languages marked Sweden in the table above have their own distinct orthographies, but one possible outcome of the Swedish project is thus that several of them may be unified.